The present disclosure is directed to a method for remitting money and more specifically to a remittance method including a debit card and a related account.
Debit cards are generally cards by which the customer can make purchases and the amount of the purchase is debited against either prestored value on the card and/or an account which is backed up by an account in a financial institution or merely by an account and financial institution. For some customers, they do not have the capability or wherewithal to open a banking account with a formal financial institution and therefore prepaid debit cards are common. These are used, for example, as phone cards or gifts cards. The present method uses such a reloadable value debit card as a basis for its remittance system.
The present disclosure provides the customer with a debit card, loads cash value on the customer's card and sets up a customer account. To allow money remittance, specific information is obtained of the customer and the recipient. These include their names, address, phone number and a recognizable government identification number. The personal data or information of the customer and the recipient is verified with a government agency. Once the transaction has been verified as acceptable, a recipient's account is established related to the customer's account. The amount of money requested by customer is transferred from the customer's account to the recipient's account. The recipient may be provided with a card providing access to the recipient's account. The recipient may be in the same country or in a foreign country.
To comply with the appropriate regulations, the amount of money that may be loaded onto a customer card or the number of cards issued to the customer is limited. Also there is recording and tracking of all card transfers. A central location verifies the financial transaction, establishes the recipient accounts, and transfers the amount of money from the customer's account to the recipient's account. The operation center provides for obtaining the customer information as well as obtains state and federal licenses to allow authorized agents to sell debit cards and load cash value on the customer card at point-of-sale devices under the licenses. The operation center records and tracks all card-to-account transfers.
These and other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.